Impressions are no longer a success metric alone → they’re inflated by AI surfaces.
CTR is the new battleground → and winning CTR now requires appearing in (or below) AI Overviews with irresistible reasons to click.
Position ≠ visibility → page-one ranking under the AI block is not the same as being seen.
That’s why it’s very important to have nice diagrams that will allow you to see what you need to do next
Let’s analyze one of the important diagrams you need to have to understand your stage, your performance, and select your next course of action.
What Do We See in This Diagram
- Your organic impressions for the last 12 months (number of people seeing your brand on SERPs).
- Your organic clicks for the last 12 months (number of people who clicked on the results).
- Your average position on Google for the last 12 months (the average page on which you rank across all the keywords you rank for).
- Percentages of increases (or decreases) month over month, but also proportionally, i.e., impressions (because of AI Overviews) are increasing faster than clicks.
What’s the first course of action I need to take:
- Separate the important (focused) keywords from the rest of the keywords you rank for.
- Check best practices on various metrics, i.e., CTR
- Compare this diagram with Google’s updates and see the impact it has on your numbers.
What these numbers should tell you
Let’s take this diagram, for example. What this diagram means:
You have done something good (in terms of the quality of your content), and most probably, you managed to be in the AI Overviews. That’s why you see increased impressions but decreased CTR. 50% of people consume the content in AI Overviews and get all the information they need without clicking for more. Let alone clicking to get more.
You can see for which of those keywords you end up in AI Overviews
Your clicks, because of all the visibility you had, increased by 21% last month (and by 67% the month before). You need to make sure that this increased traffic on your website is transformed into leads.
You can do that in multiple ways, and you can trace back each lead to where it came from.
Your CTR (number of people who clicked vs. number of people seeing you in results) is less than the benchmark by a factor of 2, even after removing the non-click behavior based on the best practices. You need to analyze further and check some of the suggestions below to increase your CTR.
You need to see the percentage of organic traffic you get from elsewhere, namely ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. That means people who end up on our website are not from Google (and that’s why GSC will not measure that as organic traffic). Traffic that’s still organic, though. Searching on ChatGPT, we can now see impressions if we analyze the keywords ourselves. But clicks will be reported by Google Analytics from the referrer ChatGPT
The new reality in Average Position
- Positions are still tracked in the “classic 10 blue links,” but many of those positions are below AI blocks and sponsored units.
- Your site is ranking better in traditional SERPs, but visibility above the fold is increasingly owned by AI snippets and ads.
The new reality in Position 0
- For years, SEOs used the term Position 0 to describe the featured snippet box (the “answer box”) that appeared above the #1 organic result.
- It pulled a text extract from a website and gave the source link.
- This was still based on Google’s regular ranking system, just surfaced at the very top.
AI Overviews
Launched widely in 2024–2025, Google’s AI Overview is generated by Google’s AI models.
Zero-Click Acceleration: AI Overviews aim to provide a concise, multi-sentence answer directly on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This is accelerating the “zero-click” trend, where users get the information they need without clicking on any website. Studies show a massive increase in zero-click searches since AI Overviews were introduced.
Instead of pulling a single snippet, it synthesizes information from multiple sources, and often shows fewer or no direct links.
It usually appears above traditional results, sometimes even pushing featured snippets and #1 organic down.
Importantly, the content is not lifted verbatim from one page (as Position 0 was), but a summary that Google itself writes.
Is the AI Overview The New Position 0?
- Technically, no: Google does not classify AI Overviews as “featured snippets,” and SEOs generally don’t call them Position 0.
- Practically, yes (visibility-wise): AI Overviews take the same space that Position 0 used to dominate, and in fact, they can be more intrusive, since they absorb user intent and reduce clicks.
- Many SEOs now call them “position negative” — because instead of driving traffic (as Position 0 sometimes did), AI Overviews can cannibalize traffic by answering everything in the SERP.
Best Practices in CTR
There is no generic way to see best practices, but we first need to analyze the positions per keyword. Then you can compare these with the best practices below.
Typical Organic CTR Benchmark before and after SGE
- Position 1: ~27–35% CTR
- Position 2: ~15–18% CTR
- Position 3: ~10–12% CTR
- Positions 4–5: ~7–9% CTR
- Positions 6–10: ~2–5% CTR
- Page 2+: <1% CTR
Because of AI Overviews (aka SGE), we see a drastic CTR drop for Position 1: Multiple studies report a steep decline in CTR for the #1 organic position when an AI Overview is present. Some reports show a drop of 32% to 34.5% for Position 1, with the CTR plummeting from benchmarks around 28% to as low as 19% or even lower in some specific cases
- Position 1: ~15–20% CTR
- Position 2: ~10–15% CTR
- Position 3: ~5–10% CTR
- Positions 4–5: ~3–7% CTR
- Positions 6–10: ~1–3% CTR
- Page 2+: <1% CTR
CTR Boost Playbook (Ranked by Impact)
1. Title Tag Optimization (Highest Impact)
- Make it clickable, not just rankable:
- Add numbers (“7 Proven Ways…”).
- Add brackets or modifiers ([2025 Guide], [Research], [Comparison]).
- Create curiosity gaps (“X vs Y — The Surprising Winner”).
- Add numbers (“7 Proven Ways…”).
- Emotional triggers: urgency, authority, exclusivity.
- Brand leverage: add your brand name at the end if it’s known/trusted.
👉 Why it works: Titles are the #1 driver of CTR. Even a position 8 listing with a strong title can outpull position
2. Meta Description Optimization
- Direct benefit statement: “Learn how to [achieve result] in less than 5 minutes.”
- Call-to-action: “See examples, templates, and free tools.”
- Keyword match: bolded terms in the snippet increase scannability.
👉 Why it works: Google may rewrite descriptions, but providing a strong draft gives you more control.
3. Schema Markup (Rich Results)
- Add FAQ schema → collapsible Q&As under your result.
- Add HowTo schema → step lists for instructional queries.
- Add Review/Rating schema (if applicable) → stars increase trust and clicks.
- Add Product schema → price/availability show directly in SERP.
👉 Why it works: Rich snippets expand your real estate and grab eye share.
4. Featured Snippets & People Also Ask Targeting
- Structure content with Q&A format, short definitions, tables, lists.
- Put a 40–60 word “answer box” summary at the top of key articles.
- Anticipate People Also Ask questions and answer them inline.
👉 Why it works: If you capture the snippet, you jump above all “blue links.”
5. Visual SERP Enhancements
- Add relevant images, video embeds, and thumbnails.
- Optimize for image search (alt text + descriptive filenames).
- Publish short-form videos (YouTube/shorts) on queries → Google often embeds them above results.
👉 Why it works: Humans click what stands out visually.
6. Intent Alignment & Query Selection
- Audit your queries: impressions may be inflated by informational searches where clicks are rare.
- Double down on transactional/commercial queries where people still need to click (“pricing,” “best tool for X,” “buy”).
👉 Why it works: Some CTR problems aren’t fixable — choose battles where a click is more likely.
Conclusion
AI Overviews are here, impressions are inflated, and CTR is bleeding. The game has changed – and so should your playbook. Ranking on page one isn’t enough anymore. You need clicks, leads, and conversions (because impressions won’t pay the bills).
The brands that win? They’ll treat CTR like the new gold standard, optimize every pixel of their SERP presence, and adapt faster than Google can say “SGE update.”
If you’re ready to stop losing clicks to AI and start pulling traffic that actually converts, let’s talk! We have the data, the know-how and the battle scars to prove it.
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Theodore has 20 years of experience running successful and profitable software products. In his free time, he coaches and consults startups. His career includes managerial posts for companies in the UK and abroad, and he has significant skills in intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship.
